The Shogi Mate
by Narago
Summary: Who knew that games of shogi could be so... revealing? ShikaTemari
1. Chapter 1

Brillance?

It wasn't that he was particularly good-looking--he really wasn't--or that he possessed great riches or powers. In fact, he looked a bit like a rat, or maybe a weasel, always pouting—but still, there was something about him.

Maybe it was because she'd never been able to beat him at shogi.

-------------

Konoha always smelled differently to her. Temari sniffed appreciatively, taking in the smells of greens and animals--and along with them the scent of manure--that she always missed back at home. Only at Chiyo's greenhouse could she recall that quality of air, and that, the garden of poisons and herbs, always had a artificial feel to it. It didn't feel genuine.

In fact, the newly appointed Jounin loved the village. Temari actually liked traveling through the thick, often dangerous--not that the wild beasts posed much threat to her--forest that stood between the villages of Sand and Leaf, and she didn't mind the three days that the trip demanded, either. Who knew that she had first come to destroy it? Temari often smiled to herself at that, the desperate past when it had seemed like Sand's survival had depended on the Leaf's destruction. The past when Gaara was blood-mad and insane.

On her back was the giant fan, her favorite weapon, and in her pack she carried the latest of missives between Tsunade and her Kazekage and brother, Gaara. She didn't read the scroll, though either of the kages would not have minded so much, the two villages being at peace and she being the sister of the Kazekage and all. It was official business, and Gaara still stood on shaky footing with some of the older ninja of the village; Temari didn't want to jeopardize what influence Gaara had.

In the distance, she could now make out the walls of the village. Already the smells of Konoha, of meat cooking and rice steaming and wood burning, caught up to her, chasing away the pure green scent of the leaves. Oh well; she'd be coming back through here, anyways.

And besides, she had practiced playing at shogi with Kankuro. He was a master player, though probably not up to Shikamaru's level, and had taught her some tricky manuevers, deceptions that might fool even _him. _She was looking forward to that.

----------------

The shade curled up around the stump of wood, and Shikamaru narrowed his eyes; the stump suddenly exploded into chunks, as the shade grasped it and conscricted. It was called the Shadow Serpent, and had first been patterned from a giant snake squeezing the life out of a deer. But some of the Nara men called it Gut-Fucker, and Shikamaru preferred that term. It wasn't as pretentious. And it's vulgar sound drove Ino mad.

"I don't speak crazy, homicidal bitch," he muttered to himself. He stretched his arms up over his head. Training was done for the day; he wondered if he should go visit Chouji. Then he groaned, remembering the pile of scrolls that lay inside his room back at the Nara manor, for the upcoming Chuunin exam. Shikamaru had first taken the job of proctoring--and directing the other proctors--figuring that it would be easier then taking on assasination missions, which was what the Nara ninja were famous for. But it turned out that testing little brats was quite a complex task, and added to that were the--

"Choji's fat and you're lazy. You guys might be twins, you know that?"

And the day sunk even lower, and as he turned to face Ino, he caught a glimpse of what she was wearing--oh, God. She was going on a date. With some handsome and unlucky Jounin, no doubt, and he wished that poor fool good luck. Ino was dressed in a sharp gray dress with patterns of cherry blossoms laced up and down and all over the place, like dandelions infesting the lawn. Shikamaru hated it when she came up to him like that. It all led to so much trouble.

"Choji works harder then you," he replied.

"Whatever. You know I was joking! Anyways, I'm going out for--"

"A date," he said. "With a 'handsome young man.' "

"I guess that brain of yours makes up for your lazy butt. Come on! You can't let a lady walk these streets all alone!"

"You're stronger then most of the men in Konoha. Excluding the ninja, that is."

"What if a--"

Shikamaru stepped up, and held up a finger, signaling her to be quiet. "I'll do it," he said. He didn't feel like dragging on this hopeless conversation. As Ino smiled and hugged him, thanking him all the while, he looked at the sky--wondered at all the clouds drifting by.

And her breasts really were soft--

Damn! Where had that come from? Girls are trouble, he told himself. But then, his brillant, 200+ IQ caught up to his--dare I say it--erection and again he admitted to himself what he'd been denying all this time. At least, trying to deny. Ino was freaking hot. And he didn't mind escorting her.

As they walked off, Shikamaru kept his eyes on the road.

--------------

"...And thank you," the Hokage replied. "You wouldn't mind a cup of tea, would you?"

"I'd rather just go," Temari replied, smiling. "I'll come back to pick up the reply tomorrow morning, if that's all right."

"Yeah, that'd be fine." Tsunade yawned and leaned back on her chair. "Man, I'm tired." As Temari watched, the leader of the what was probably the strongest village of shinobi right now took out a roll of scratch-out lottery tickets and began scraping away with the dull head of a kunai knife. "Care for a try?" She asked, tearing out one and handing it to her.

Temari shook her head, smiled, and excused herself. "I really gotta be going."

"Some boy? Tsunade asked, still scratching away at the tickets. When she won nothing, she tossed it carelessly to the wastebasket in the corner of the room; she did this with practice and ease, and Temari knew the Hokage's reputation as a legendary sucker. Bad luck, at least concerning gambling, followed her around like a plague.

"Of course not."

"Of course. Well, get going then. I don't want to keep you from," Tsunade smirked, "your special friend."

"Good luck with those tickets," Temari said, and left.

Tsunade liked the girl--even though she had, technically, tried to tear down Konoha. But that had all been a misunderstanding, a colossal one perhaps, but a misunderstanding nonetheless. Then her eyes caught something strange. As she scraped away at a ticket, she realized that the three dango sticks were in a diagonal row--shit, she thought, as she looked at the prize, I won twenty thousand.

This was bad. Shizune would have to be told. But then, a whole roll remained...

---------------

"Out on a date?" Kiba asked, as they sat in the ramen stand.

"No." Shikamaru slurped up some noodles, along with a bit of sliced pork, as he watched Ino hug and be hugged quite unappropriately by her date. He was some blond-haired jackass--no, that was stupid, he didn't know that person very well and so he shouldn't make snap judgements--but that smile reminded him stupendously of no one else but Naruto. A toothpick or something stuck out between the Jounin's lips.

"For a guy just hanging around, you look awfully territorial."

"Thanks, Dog-Face."

Dog-Face smirked. "Well, she is kinda hot."

"Kinda?"

"I say kinda because I've seen what she can do when she feels like it. Man, that's must've sucked when she took your body over and stuck it inside the outhouse with--"

"Shut up," Shikamaru replied, irritated. "And what are you doing here?"

"I'm on a date," Kiba said. "And I'm not afraid to say so, either."

"With who? She probably smells like a dog..."

"Which is perfectly fine. And-- ah, there he is."

The 'he' in question was Akamaru. Shikamaru remembered when the dog had been just a tiny little pup, and now, as the giant white dog strolled past and licked Kiba's hand absently, he again felt the passage of time. Well, sort of; time best displayed itself, at least in his eyes, in the growth of the genin he had known. Kiba, Shino, Hinata, Ino, Choji, Neji, Lee and Tenten; there was Sakura too, though he didn't see much of her, and then there was Sasuke--long gone--and Naruto--also gone, but only temporarily.

And Ino definitely displayed growth in certain areas along her body--

"Damn pervert," he muttered to himself. Whether it was for himself or that Jounin--he was hugging Ino far too closely for comfort--was debatable.

"You know," Kiba then said, "she probably likes you."

"I know," Shikamaru replied--and that was the problem. He recognized just why she asked him to 'escort' her out so much. And he didn't want that, not at all; he preferred Ino as a friend, a hot one, but just a friend nonetheless.

"So why don't you just go for it?"

"She's not so good at shogi," Shikamaru said.

"What?" Kiba looked incredulous. "What the hell are you talking about?"

"Look: I know that most of the Chuunin just think of sex all the time--at least, the ones I've seen. If that was all I wanted, I'd ask out Ino, 'kay? But when things get serious--"

"That's what condoms are there for," said Kiba.

Shikamaru sighed; it was no use talking to Kiba. And as he sulked, the Dog-Face met his date (she really did smell like a dog) and happily went off with her, Akamaru trotting behind his heels.

Ino really did suck at shogi. But, as he pondered that, Shikamaru wondered if he was just using her inept game-playing to hide his true feelings. He'd seen others do that, and knew that it was stupid. But then--no. He couldn't truly, absoutely respect anyone so bad at playing the chess-game. And if he couldn't respect her like that, if he couldn't respect her the way he did his father, then there was no use in any further involvement.

Sighing again, Shikamaru walked off, hands tucked into his pockets. He never saw Ino peering at his retreating back.

-----------------

"So where is he..." Temari peered in at the little house, the one she knew belonged to the Nara clan. This was one of the small hovels maintained for the use of coming-of-age ninjas seeking some privacy; it was also used as a place for detention. Shikamaru lived here, perhaps finding solace in the quiet.

She looked inside. A shogi board, with it's pieces in process of being played; a bedroll; a whetstone and some ninja weaponry; and junk lying heaped in one dark corner, knick-knacks that he hadn't bothered to clean up. He really is a lazy bum, she thought.

Then she turned around, hearing someone walk up to the house. It was him--Shikamaru.

"What are you here for?" He asked her, a little smile playing around his lips. "You finally begging for a date?"

"Screw that," she replied. "I'm here for a rematch. A payback."

"Your brother, eh? Kankuro--I wonder how good he is..." With that, he moved past her and into the hut. He rearranged the pieces. "Whatever; you've never won so far, not in the last two years."

"You'll see," Temari said, and sat before the board, unslinging her fan from her back. "First move?"

"Ladies first..."

A/N: Well, I hope I didn't treat Ino too harshly. I tried to provide a love-triangle thing that isn't skewed from the start. The key word being 'tried,' I suppose. I hope you enjoyed this part--the next will be up soon, and that will hopefully be the end of this little series. Then I'm going to start on something very EPIC. Yeah!


	2. Chapter 2

**The Shogi Mate: Part Two, and the Conclusion.**

* * *

"Stop playing around," Temari said, angrily. "If you want to finish the game, just do it."

Shikamaru shrugged. "But I don't want to," he said.

The shogi game was wearing on and on--even with Kankuro's tricks, Temari was having a hard time breaking through Shikamaru's seemingly impregnable defenses. It seemed like he had countermoves for every move she made, and that his mind was formulating reactions for any ploys she might attempt. Now her forces were scattered, half of them slaughtered; and though she could not see any immediate dangers to her 'king,' Temari had a suspicious feeling that Shikamaru might not see the same--that he probably knew a way to cleave into her side's heart.

"Then I give up," she said, scooting away from the table. "This is impossible."

"Not really," Shikamaru replied. "Look--you could've moved all of these here, launched this here, and that would've set up a nice hit into my ranks."

Temari looked at where he was pointing; he was right. Why didn't she see this before? "But what would you have done if I did that?"

"Well..." He picked up a piece, and sent it two spaces ahead. "That should set up a nice counterattack."

She rolled her eyes. "Why did I even bother?"

"Whatever." He yawned. "You leaving soon?"

Shrugging, she replied, "Tomorrow morning. I still have to get the Hokage-san's reply."

Shikamaru nodded. He thought about their game of shogi--it had been a pretty good game, and she had put up quite a fight. He peeked outside--the sun was setting now. The game had taken a couple of hours, not because of any fault on his part, but because Temari had taken so much time with each of her moves. Normally, he was annoyed with anyone who took more then ten seconds coming up with the next move; but whenever he played against her, he found himself going... lenient, because the game always became so much more interesting. Not to mention that she looked---alright? kinda pretty?--when she frowned or concentrated, her brows furrowing a bit, her eyes narrowing slightly.

Whatever. He stood up. His legs creaked in protest.

"My legs fell asleep," Temari said. She tried to get up, only to stumble and fall, laughing. "God--I feel like I'm drunk."

Remembering his drinking bout with Chouji and Kiba a month ago, Shikamaru smiled. "This is absoutely nothing compared to drinking. And are you hungry?" His stomach growled a bit in assent.

"You sound like it." Temari, now on her feet, bent down and retrieved her fan, and fastened it across her back. "The usual place, then?"

"I was thinking more about ramen."

"Ramen? Not at the Itadaki place?" Looking a bit suspicious, she peered into his face. "You're not trying to sneak in a date, are you?"

"What? No."

She looked relieved--but was that a flash of disappointment? Hoping that the same emotion wasn't mirrored on his face, he led her out the door.

* * *

"So, what happened, afterwards?" Asuma nudged Shikamaru playfully. "I'm all ears." 

Team Asuma still met once a week in the Sunagakure-style barbecue, the Sand Lamp. Shikamaru frowned as Choji laughed and picked up another giant piece of meat, dripping with soy sauce.

"Nothing," he said. "We just went to the Ichiraku, had some ramen, talked a bit, and--"

"Did she cross her legs like _this?" _Asuma crossed his fingers to suggest that Temari had, um, showed... her undersides. Under her thighs. God, this was getting uncomfortable.

"No," Shikamaru said. "We didn't do anything."

"So is _that _what you're angry about?"

"No!"

"You know," Choji said then, "you're always cool about these kind of things. Remember when Master Asume had his little indiscretion with Yuuhi Kurenai?"

"That's _Mistress _Kurenai to you, punk," Asuma said.

"Whatever," Shikamaru said. "Listen: she's just a friend. I have no feelings whatsoever for her, and I like her no more then I like Ino." Then he looked at the two sitting across the table, staring right over his shoulder, and sighed. "And damn it, Ino's standing right behind me, isn't she?"

The girl in question punched the back of his head, sending his face crashing into the table, turned, and left. Shikamaru rose up with a bloody nose and chased after her.

Asuma and Choji, now alone, shrugged and continued eating. Hey, it'd be a waste not to eat...

* * *

Temari decided that thinking about Nara Shikamaru was like thinking about a giant, black ball of cotton dripping with soporifics. It bore no use--there was no point in it. At least, that's what she told herself. No point whatsoever. Right... 

The Godaime hadn't been in her office, so she was stuck in Konoha for one more night. Not that she minded, but still, the delay was quite upsetting in that she had told Nara that she was going to leave that very night... it would be uncomfortable to see him again. He might think it was a lie. But why did she care about what he thought?

She had been walking back to the inn when she spotted a little place called the Sand Lamp. She immediately identified the scent of spices in the air--gods, it was a Sunagakure grill! Though she loved the forest setting of Konoha, the foods here always tasted so bland, with fish and ramen and rice and those just about being it.

Give me a nice shank of roasted mutton any day, she thought.

Then a blond-haired girl rushed out of the restaurant. Temari hid herself. She identified the girl as Yamanaka Ino. And following her was... Nara Shikamaru.

Stifling the sudden rise of anger, she stayed hidden, and listened.

"You're supposed to be a fucking genius!" Ino cried.

"I know."

"Well, well, you never get the hint, do you!"

"I did, actually."

That seemed to stop the Yamanaka girl in her tracks. Temari watched with narrowed eyes as Ino turned and started walking back to Shikamaru, who stood with his hands in his pockets. Temari realized then that he was going to do nothing while Ino did _something... _

"Oh no you don't," Temari said out aloud. "You better not punch him."

The Yamanaka girl stopped, and turned towards the sound of the voice. Shikamaru, on the other hand, suddenly looked like he was going to be sick.

"Punch him, and you die," Temari said.

"You're Temari," Ino said calmly. "Right?"

"Yeah," she replied, thrown off by the other girl's lack of enmity.

"Look," Ino said, "I got nothing against you--I mean, you didn't hear this idiot, did you?"

"What... what did he say?" Temari took a quick look at Shikamaru, who looked like he was going to faint.

"That he liked you no more then he did me."

Something telepathic seemed to pass between the girls then. Their eyes locked, shared some mutual pain, and turned towards the token male of their little triad. Shikamaru gulped, and tried to run away.

The key word being 'tried,' that is.

* * *

"Don't fuck with that chick," Kiba said knowledgeably from the bed next to his. The dog-face's date hadn't gone very well, either, judging by the numerous stitches covering his body.

Chouji snorted. "Well, _yeah."_

Shikamaru sighed and turned back to the window, where numerous clouds, fluffy and white, were passing overhead. It was going to be a long day; after all, with three broken ribs and two shattered legs, he wasn't going to go anywhere...

_A/N: I have no idea if policies allow me to write down replies for the reviews here, so I decided to be safe and just replied to all of the reviews with the, well, the reply button. Thanks for the reviews, everyone. I think I got everyone--if I missed you, all I can say is that I'm an idiot. Thanks for reading!_


	3. Chapter 3

_Sorry about the wait. The first part of this chapter was uploaded as 'Bedside Game of Shogi,' but no one read that, so... _

-----------------------

Once upon a time, all that Shikamaru had wanted to do was stare at the passing clouds while gently easing into a nap--maybe the wind would brush his face and cool his brow, and he would ponder sleepily some problems of shogi. But now, as he lay in the hospital bed with three broken ribs and a shattered leg, Shikamaru realized the foremost problem with cloud-watching: it was boring as hell.

One of the nurses had left a juice-pack by his mouth, and he sipped it with a small straw. The beating that he'd received from both Temari and Ino still gave him nightmares. Women; hadn't his father warned him about them? Suddenly, Shikamaru had the sickening presentiment of his marital life--visions of himself getting bitch-slapped around by whoever his wife would be assaulted him.

"Never," he rasped out. "Hell no."

The television in the corner was turned on to some cartoon show; a shinobi was dodging a flood of thrown shuriken, as the villain cackled madly. Bored, Shikamaru gathered together a tendril of shadows from a dim corner of the room, and gently eased them into a finger. Then he guided it to the TV, intent on switching the channel--

"Hey, if it isn't Shikamaru!"

Cloud-watching was boring, but getting a visit from Kiba was irritating. He wondered which was worse. Boredom, or irritation? Well, boredom drained the energy out of you, but irritation itched...

"Kiba," Shikamaru said, curtly. He wondered just how Dog-Face had recovered so quickly from the wounds that his date had given him. "How's it going?"

"Great," Kiba said, grinning. "I have another date."

"Didn't the last one teach you anything?"

"Oh, no," Kiba replied. "I mean, it would have, but chicks absoutely love Akamaru, so it was a done deal."

"Did it ever occur to you that maybe they go out with you not because of you, but because of your dog?"

"What? Come on, that's nuts."

"Oh yeah? Just a question then: did you happen to take Akamaru with you on your last date?"

Kiba looked... thoughtful, in a slightly depressed way. "You know, you have a point there."

Shikamaru sighed. "Good."

"I'll just take Akamaru with me this time."

He should have expected this. Really. "Fine. Whatever. What do you want?"

Kiba whipped out a small bento, wrapped in a pink handkerchief. "Chouji asked me to hand this to you--he told me to tell you that his mother's having a donkatsu day."

Shikamaru sniffed: the lunch smelled delicious. "Give him my thanks."

"And I also wanted to check up on my bunk-mate," Kiba added, smiling. His teeth, with pointed fangs, looked unintentionally vicious. Or so Shikamaru hoped. "I mean, I know my date was a disaster, but your's, my friend, that was a total--"

"It wasn't a date," Shikamaru said, cutting him off.

"You know that Ino chick wants you, and that girl from Sand, judging from those broken ribs she gave you, probably wants you too. You gotta make a choice, man--there's three: one is to take Ino. Two is to take Temari. Three is to do neither and hope that you'll survive the year."

"Wouldn't Temari just kill me if I took Ino--and vice versa?" Despite himself, Shikamaru was interested. Maybe this was what he wanted to hear. Not that he did, mind you, but still.

"That's why kunoichi exist," Kiba said with a grin. "So that they can fight over the man they want."

"You know, Kiba, it may be that girls go on dates with you because of you--" Kiba perked up at this--"but girls dump you because of you, too. Akamaru can't help, not like this."

"The hell you mean by that?"

"I mean that maybe your relationships would last longer if you just, I don't know, respected them a bit more--"

"This from a guy who got his ass kicked by his girlfriends."

"I told you, she's not my woman--" then Shikamaru stopped talking, for that was when Temari walked in through the door, frowning and sniffing the air a bit.

"Why does it smell like a dog in here?" She asked, then she spotted Kiba. "Oh."

"Whoa," Kiba said. "She _does _look mean."

"What?" Temari asked.

"Nothing," Shikamaru said. "Nothing at all--we were talking about those clouds up there."

"Really." Looking unconvinced, Temari dragged a chair up from the corner of the room and dragged it up to Shikamaru's bedside. Kiba, suddenly looking sheepish for he had been standing all this time, dragged a chair up for himself too.

"I just wanted to apologize," she said. "For, you know, kicking your ass."

"It's nothing," Shikamaru said, shaking his head--then a sharp prick of pain jabbed his chest as his broken ribs protested even that small movement.

"Nothing, huh?" Temari smiled, looked wicked. "Then you won't mind if I do this--" With this, she poked him on the chest, hard. He yelped.

"I'll be going now," Kiba said hurriedly. "See you, man--and nice meeting you. I'm Kiba, by the way."

"Temari," she replied. "Nice meeting you, too."

When Kiba left, she suddenly laughed. "I mean, just imagine it."

"Imagine what?"

"What if polygamy was legal? Nasty thought, but think of how whipped you'd be..." She laughed again.

"Whatever," Shikamaru said. "Just get it over with it, will you?"

"With what?"

"With--with whatever you came to do."

"I just came to apologize," she said, looking hurt. "Unless, of course, you actually liked the beating--then I absoutely cannot associate with you anymore. I don't like masochists."

"I'm not a masochist," he said quickly, before she could get any ideas. Although Temari said that she wasn't a sadist, the look on her face as her foot crunched into his abdomen still haunted his thoughts. "And I accept your apology."

"Really? That's great, then." Smiling still, she whipped out a small scroll. Shikamaru looked on apprehensively as she performed the hand-seals and smoke started pouring out of the scroll. Then--instead of some giant weasel or monster, as he'd expected, a giant, ornate shogi board popped out, with carved jade pieces.

"Where did you get that?" It must have cost a fortune, Shikamaru thought.

"It's my father's," Temari said. "Gaara gave it to me when he was elected Kage. Now, if you would finish out game from earlier--"

"I won then," he said. "And besides, I don't think I'm in the shape to play."

"That's even better," she replied. "I might actually have a chance to win."

Shikamaru pondered his options, decided that anything was better then cloud-watching, and smiled. "Fine, then. Not that I'll go easy on you."

"Maybe I should have kicked your head a bit more," she said, teasing. "Give you a bit of brain damage, and maybe even out the odds a bit."

And they began to play.

-----------------------------

Ino wondered just which flower she should pick. A rose was too frontal, too revealing, and it wasn't like she was in love with him or anything… no, she thought, as she sorted through the cut flowers in the box. Not a rose.

The Yamanaka flower shop hadn't changed at all in the last few years. Her mother was in the back, making floral arrangements for the Godaime-sama's big banquet tonight. It was to honor the Raikage and his visiting guests, and something lightning-themed had been requested.

"Ino!" Her mother called out. "Could you lend me a hand here?"

Ino sighed and stood. Not a rose… but a daffodil was a bit too common, truth be told, and she remembered Sakura picking it once, so that was also out of the question. Not that she and Sakura were enemies anymore, but still, you really had to retain an individual style—it was ridiculous how some little girls were dying their hairs blond and putting little dots on their foreheads to imitate the Godaime. But Tsunade was really pretty for someone so old—

"Lightning flowers," her mother said cheerily. "You can actually feel them."

Ino could. There was in the air a quality of static electricity, and her hair began to stand on their ends. "What…"

"I imported them from Sunagakure," her mother replied. "There's a botanist there who works on… what was her name? Oh, yes. Chiyo. She keeps stock of all the plants around the world, and I asked for some lightning blooms. She charged me quite a price, but I think it's appropriate for the occasion."

"Er…" Ino gulped. The flowers looked dangerous. An arc of tiny lightning crackled around some of the jagged leaves. "Can you touch them?"

"Just concentrate your chakra on your fingertips, dear."

Ino tried. She yelped when a stray bit of lightning cracked onto her index finger.


End file.
